A Turkish Artist Challenges the Passive Public in “I Only Did What I Was Told To Do”

At Zilberman Gallery in Istanbul, Turkish artist Extrastruggle is currently exhibiting a series of politically charged new works in “I Only Did What I Was Told To Do.” Given the region’s volatile political landscape and cultural turmoil, his incisive sculptures and installations feel particularly relevant.

The gallery’s central space is filled with familiar objects—women’s shoes, a knife, a chain—presented in surprising, sometimes disturbing ways. In Some Days Were Missing Last Year-II* (2016), for instance, 33 women’s shoes are arranged in the shape of what appears to be a large whip, with a police baton where the whip’s handle would be. An accompanying note says, “The number of women exposed to violence and murdered in Turkey in 2015: 289.”

Another piece also centers on a women’s shoe. Stiletto-heeled and adorned with white feathers and flowers, this one is meant to be worn with ladies’ lingerie. The fanciful slipper comes with a matching knife. The work’s sly title? Honeymoon Set.

Violence against women, whether institutionalized or in the domestic sphere, is a theme Extrastruggle (aka Memed Erdener) has long explored. Also on his agenda: the frivolity of pop culture, corrupt politicians and their relationship to a passive public, and rampant consumerism fueled by (and feeding) insurmountable debt on national and personal levels.

Though Extrastruggle’s work is often motivated by the state of affairs in his native Turkey, his observations resonate across the borders of what he calls “this hellish world where debt is sacred, where obedience gives peace, where differences are crushed with the power of community.”

Along those lines, Obedience and Construction –II (2016) depicts a man bowing before an industrial crane; he’s in the rukūʿ position, the traditional Muslim bow that follows a recitation of the Qur’an. For Extrastruggle, the idea of obedience, of submitting, is a dangerous proposition.